It's astounding this former personal trainer or whatever he was bases his entire political philosophy on a novel written by a failed Hollywood screenwriter and full-time crackpot.
It's scary shit because it isn't just limited to Ryan. Hell, how much difference is Ayn's "philosophy" from the crackpot Austrian/Chicago school of economics?
It's all about this: If I don't need it or use it, why should I pay for it?
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Speaking of Ryan, Robert Reich says the guy isn't any kind of firebrand, actually fairly innocuous, until one actually listens to the crackpottery he has to say:
Social Darwinism offered a moral justification for the wild inequities and social cruelties of the late nineteenth century. It allowed John D. Rockefeller, for example, to claim the fortune he accumulated through his giant Standard Oil Trust was “merely a survival of the fittest… the working out of a law of nature and of God.”
The social Darwinism of that era also undermined all efforts to build a more broadly based prosperity and rescue our democracy from the tight grip of a very few at the top. It was used by the privileged and powerful to convince everyone else that government shouldn’t do much of anything.
Not until the twentieth century did America reject social Darwinism. We created a large middle class that became the engine of our economy and our democracy. We built safety nets to catch Americans who fell downward, often through no fault of their own.
The cruelties of Social Darwinism are why the New Deal was created in the first place. We KNOW what works; however, this country is increasingly being run by a cadre of sociopaths.
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Whether it is Romney, Ryan, or Grover Norquist really calling the shots, the extremism may be enough for people to actually re-elect a neoliberal who is likely to do the same or similar thing.
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Twelve things you should know about this nightmare pick is the subject of this article, not least among them his adoration of crackpot novelist Ayn Rand.
Rand died thirty years ago, but her demented cult lives on. Unfortunately, many of her fans are in high government positions.
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